Jumia Books We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler is a masterfully crafted novel that explores the emotional terrain of family, memory, and the boundaries of humanity. Narrated by Rosemary Cooke, a college student with a fractured past, the story unfolds with wit, sorrow, and a stunning revelation that reshapes everything the reader thought they knew.

At its heart, the novel is about the disappearance of Rosemary’s sister Fern, a loss that shattered her family and left Rosemary emotionally adrift. But Fern isn’t just any sister—she’s a chimpanzee, raised alongside Rosemary as part of a psychological experiment. This extraordinary premise allows Fowler to delve into profound questions about nature versus nurture, the ethics of scientific research, and the emotional bonds that transcend species.

Themes include:

The unreliability of memory and the stories we tell ourselves

The trauma of separation and the longing for connection

The complexities of sibling relationships and parental expectations

The blurred lines between human and animal consciousness

The consequences of scientific ambition on personal lives

Fowler’s prose is sharp, compassionate, and often darkly funny. She balances philosophical depth with emotional immediacy, creating a narrative that is both intellectually provocative and deeply moving. The novel has been praised for its originality and emotional resonance, earning a place on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize.

Ideal for readers of literary fiction, psychology, and animal ethics, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a story that lingers long after the final page. It’s a meditation on what it means to belong, to remember, and to love—across boundaries we didn’t know existed.